After few months of inactivity, illegal immigration gangs have resumed their operations. One of their attempts led to the drowning of a boy off the coast of Abukir, while 26 were saved by rescue teams and eight are still missing. First Deputy Prosecutor of el-Montazah II (Alexandria), Mohamed Badr, ordered yesterday to arrest the gang accused of defrauding 35 youths, as it charged each of them LE 20,000 to take them to Italy via the sea. Investigations have been carried out under the supervision of Counselor Mohamed el-Bandari, attorney general of East Alexandria prosecutions. It has emerged that Major General Abdallah el-Watidi, director of the department countering crimes with public money, received information about an agreement between a fishing boat owner from the governorate of Beheira and some brokers to get LE700,000 from 35 youths who wished to emigrate to Italy. The youths were put into a boat and then cast into the open sea off the coasts of Abukir. The investigations, supervised by Major General Youssef Hassan, director of the Western Delta Department, confirmed the information was correct. A team was set up to stop the boat and capture the would-be immigrants. Brigadier General Abdallah Khalil, Deputy Director of the department countering crimes with public money, arrested 26 people (including some brokers and the crewmembers) after they were rescued from the sea. They were then referred to the prosecution. The youths confessed to paying the brokers to let them travel to Italy. They said that after three days in the open sea, the brokers suddenly asked them to jump into the sea saying they had arrived to Western Italy. They jumped, but 26-year-old Ahmed Ali Abou Sabra, an unemployed from the province of Etay el-Barud (Beheira governorate), drowned. Eight others went missing and they are currently being looked for in the Mediterranean by the concerned bodies.
